| Slot supporters seek regulation Bill would make them clearly legal 04/04/2001 By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News Video slot advocates said Tuesday that their divided industry is working on a compromise bill to regulate the fast-spreading betting machines – and remove them from the purview of law enforcement officials who have declared them illegal.
Industry representatives were asked to try to settle their differences after a contentious House hearing Monday in which large game operators complained that a pending bill backed by the state's vending companies was aimed at putting big game rooms out of business.
Officials with the state comptroller's office told the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee that Texas now has as many as 45,000 of the machines – more than double the number statewide in 1999.
The attorney general declared in 1997 that all slots offering any payouts are illegal under the state's ban on casino gambling. But industry operators have contended since then that they are exempt from the state's anti-gambling laws under a 1995 measure aimed at allowing children's arcade games to award cheap prizes.
During the 1997 and 1999 legislative sessions, industry allies beat back bills supported by Gov. George Bush that would have explicitly banned the machines and strengthened criminal penalties against their operators. Video-slot opponents say they have been unable to get any similar bills introduced in the current session.
Rep. Debra Danburg, D-Houston, sponsor of the industry's pending pro-slot bill, said Tuesday that her measure would clear up what she called confusion over the legal status of the machines and assigning their regulation to the comptroller.
She said the current law is unfair because it leaves some operators facing aggressive local enforcement while others face none because officials in their areas have opted not to enforce the law.
In Dallas, where the district attorney's office has not filed a criminal case against video-slot operators in more than three years, game rooms have opened across the city. Dozens are open 24 hours, and police say many openly pay off in cash – and not the $5 gift certificates that video-slot advocates contend makes them exempt from the gambling ban.
"It is gambling. Clearly it's gambling," Ms. Danberg said. "I'm not about trying to legislate morals. ...I am about writing laws that are clear and writing laws that are fair and writing laws that are clearly and fairly and not selectively enforced."
Her measure proposes charging machine operators from $2000 and levying a $120 license fee for each video-slot.
That would give the state $7.4 million in new annual revenues, according to an estimate from the legislative budget board. By comparison, South Carolina earned $61 million in annual revenues before outlawing its 34,000-machine video poker industry last July.
Ms. Danburg's original measure also would limit operators to no more than 30 machines in bingo halls and no more than five in other locations. The Amusement and Music Operators of Texas, an industry group that favors her bill, says that would eliminate the large slot parlors have drawn criticism and police raids across the state.
But members of the Texas Amusement Association, which represents large operators, argued Monday that the measure was aimed at putting them out of business.
"This is a money deal plain and simple," said Mike Warner, chief lobbyist for the game-room association. "It's an inside the industry fight where one portion of the industry wants a monopoly. Our side doesn't have a problem with regulation. ...We just want to be treated the same as everybody else."
Ms. Danberg said she and other committee members were sympathetic to parlor operators' concerns, and that she believes all sides can reach a compromise that will have "a good chance of passage."
Mr. Warner said he remains skeptical that the industry can reach any agreement. He said his group plans to press ahead with an initiative begun in January to rally support for its own pro-slot bill to be introduced in the 2003 legislative session.
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